L(poems on the underground)

  THE ANCIENT FAUN

Un vieux faune de terre cuite
 Rit au centre des boulingrins,
Présageant sans doute une suite
 Mauvaise à ces instants sereins

Qui m'ont conduit et t'ont conduite,
 Mélancoliques pèlerins -
Jusqu'à cette heure dont la fuite
 Tournoie au son des tambourins.

PAUL VERLAINE (1844-96)

An ancient terracotta faun
 Beckoning across the lawn
Smiles as if it knows full well
 Through omens bad of fortunes fell

That this calm hour this cloudless dawn
 Lights but a pilgrimage forlorn
And fleeting hours our selves propel
 To music of a carousel

Translation: BARRY PRESS

© barry press: not to be reproduced on any web page or in any other form without explicit consent

un faune = a faun, a Roman "devil"
un faon = a fawn
mauvais présage = bad omen
mauvaise conduite = loose life
présage = (fore)bode, portend, betoken, predict
"taunts" "sour outcome" "idylls" "lured"
"to this meeting, already fleeting"

An ancient terracotta faun
laughs at the centre of the bowling-greens
Omening no doubt a follow-up/continuation/result
Bad to these serene/calm moments

Who brings me and you
Melancholy/gloomy/mournful pilgrims (/capes)
Up to this hour whose flight
Twirls to the sound of tambourines